FCW Insider

Quick Hits

*** The American Civil Liberties Union cried foul over a new feature rolled out by Twitter that allows users to preselect who can respond to their tweets by tagging them in, saying its use by elected officials could violate the First Amendment.

"As a general matter, Twitter's investment in user controls is a good thing. But public officials would be violating the First Amendment if they were to use this tool to block speakers on any accounts they've opened up for public conversation in their roles as government actors," said Vera Eidelman, staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project in a statement. "Nor should public officials use this tool to decide who can, or can't, reply to accounts they have opened up for requests for government assistance, which may be on the rise due to COVID-19."

*** A Government Accountability Officereport on Defense Department acquisition found that the use of cost-type contracts and fixed-price contracts doesn't predict whether programs land on time or on schedule. The report did conclude that certain acquisition design practices were predictive of successful outcomes.